Changes in domestic life--Lady Elizabeth Howard’s household at Naworth Castle--The Countess of Sunderland--The Belvoir Castle family--The Countess of Salisbury’s suit--The Countess of Pembroke and the “boon hen”--Bess of Hardwicke-- Court ladies--Lady Brilliana Harley--Lady Lucas-- Match-making--Seizure of an heiress 155 CHAPTER V. EVERY-DAY LIFE IN THE STUART PERIOD. Puritan influence--Neglect of women’s education--The boarding-out system for girls--Sir Matthew Hale on the education of girls--Manners and customs--Diversions of great ladies--Rules for behaviour--John Evelyn on manners-- Effects of the Civil War--Simplicity of home life--Lady Anne Halkett--Position of wives--A contemporary writer on husbands 173 CHAPTER VI. PETITIONERS TO PARLIAMENT. The city dames during the Civil War--They petition Parliament for peace--Reception of the petition--The military called out--Petition from tradesmen’s wives for redress of grievances--Pym’s reply--Women’s memorial to Cromwell against imprisonment for debt--Sufferers during the Monmouth Rebellion--Petition against Judge Jeffreys--Hannah Hewling petitions the king 193 CHAPTER VII. HEROINES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Nature of the struggle--Position of Queen Henrietta Maria-- Activity of women on both sides--Mrs. Hutchinson at Nottingham--Defence of Lathom House by the Countess of Derby--Lady Arundel at Wardour Castle--Lady Bankes besieged in Corfe Castle--Lady Lettice Digby defends Greashill Castle--Lady Fanshawe’s visits to her husband in prison-- Experiences of a gentlewoman in the West of England--Lady Musgrave and the Parliament--Lady Halkett assists the Duke of York to escape--Lady Rochester and the elections--The Jacobite rising--Flora McDonald 205 CHAPTER VIII. THE MARTYR PERIODS: RELIGIOUS ZEAL AND RELIGIOUS APATHY. Religious life in the sixteenth century--Religion the great motive-power--The Lollard persecutions--Protestant martyrs of the sixteenth century--Anne Askew--Women martyrs in the seventeenth century--Persecution of the Quakeresses--Quaker doctrines--Seventeenth-century Anglicanism--Indifference of the Church to social work--Condition of the clergy--Mary Astell and her Protestant nunnery--The Countess of Warwick 235 CHAPTER IX. WITCHCRAFT. Universality of the belief in witchcraft--Persecution of witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--Attitude of the Puritans--Origin of the witch--First use of the term-- Enactments against witchcraft--The Essex persecutions--The last judicial execution 261 CHAPTER X.